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Changes in Police Calls for Service During the Early Months of the 2020
Coronavirus Pandemic
#MMPMID40504136
Ashby MPJ
Policing (Oxf)
2020[Jun]; ? (?): paaa037
PMID40504136
show ga
The coronavirus pandemic poses multiple challenges for policing, including the
need to continue responding to calls from the public. Several contingency plans
warned police to expect a large and potentially overwhelming increase in demand
from the public during a pandemic, but (to the author's knowledge) there is no
empirical work on police demand during a major public health emergency. This
study used calls-for-service data from 10 large cities in the USA to analyse how
calls for service changed during the early months of the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak,
compared to forecasts of call volume based on data from previous years. Contrary
to previous warnings, overall the number of calls went down during the early
weeks of the pandemic. There were substantial reductions in specific call types,
such as traffic collisions, and significant increases in others, such as calls to
dead bodies. Other types of calls, particularly those relating to crime and order
maintenance, continued largely as before. Changes in the frequency of different
call types present challenges to law enforcement agencies, particularly since
many will themselves be suffering from reduced staffing due to the pandemic.
Understanding changes to calls in detail will allow police leaders to put in
place evidence-based plans to ensure they can continue to serve the public.
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